Data center management isn’t rocket science, but having some rocket-science chops can’t hurt.
Canadian software company Maya HTT started in the early 80s making software that ran thermal analysis on spacecraft for the Canadian Space Agency. It’s branched out widely since, but about eight years ago its management team realized a lot of the knowledge the company had could translate well to software used to manage data centers.
That’s when Maya embarked on creating what today is called Datacenter Clarity LC, its DCIM software. The idea to create a DCIM product came when Maya was doing a Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis of energy efficiency of a data center for a customer in Europe, Inta Zvagulis, the company’s CEO, said. As a software-development house familiar with modeling complex physical objects and managing massive software projects, Maya management felt the company could create a strong DCIM offering, she said.
DC Clarity, which Maya brought to market about four years ago, includes features like real-time monitoring, alarms, event notifications, asset management, asset visualization, and energy efficiency management with CFD integration, among other capabilities. The company has secured Siemens as an official reseller of the software.
Olivier Allard, a senior DCIM exec at Maya, said one of the main strengths of the solution is the breadth of data types it can ingest and process. The software supports more than 800 protocols, he said. It can integrate with an existing BMS (Building Management System) and existing sensors, or simply collect data directly from servers and switches over the network.
Companies that have deployed Maya’s DCIM software include large IT service providers, telcos, a major utility, and colocation providers. The company considers its play in the colo market particularly strong. “We have a particularly wonderful capability for colos that far exceeds what we’ve seen in the marketplace,” Zvagulis said. Those capabilities are visualization, ease of use, and real-time monitoring.
The solution enables colo providers to offer their customers remote monitoring of their environment in the data center, Allard said. Through a web browser, they can track things like their electrical consumption, or temperature. It gives them a higher-than-usual level of understanding of their colo environment, he said.
Like other DCIM software vendors, Maya has been receiving more and more requests to integrate its software with IT Service Management solutions. It has integrated with BMC Remedy Service Management, but DC Clarity also has an open API, which enables it to integrate with any software, Allard said.
Some customers have requested to integrate DC Clarity with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. One colocation customer is now using DC Clarity as a communication link between sales people and data center managers. When a sales person closes a sale, they input it into the ERP system, which through DC Clarity alerts the data center manager that a new customer is coming in so they can be ready.
If you want to get to know more DCIM software companies, learn how to go through the product selection process, how to deploy and manage DCIM software, or to stay abreast of the latest news in the DCIM world, explore the Data Center Knowledge DCIM InfoCenter.
